In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 184,261, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,977,618, issued Dec. 11, 1990, an infrared data communications link is disclosed. Data transmission over an infrared media provides the possibility for the introduction of spurious errors. One method to correct such errors particularly suitable to an Apple Talk Network is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 331,604. APPLE TALK is a trademark of Apple Computer Corporation. In an RS 232 environment, additional conditions exist which demand alternate solutions to the data integrity problem.